Leica IIIb
Leica IIIb
March 26, 2014
Leica IIIb with an Elmar 50 mm f/3.5, 1938
The Leica's next evolutionary step was all about optimising the viewfinder and the rangefinder.
Already with the Leica III the image in the rangefinder was enlarged by one and a half for purposes of easier adjustment, but the photographer was obliged to change between the viewfinder eyepiece and the range finder.
That all changed in 1938 with the Leica IIIb, where both slipped so close together that the search for the motif and the focussing could be done simultaneously.
With this, Leica was taking over a feature from the Zeiss Contax, which had come onto the market two years earlier as the first serious competitor to the Leica.
Already with the Leica III the image in the rangefinder was enlarged by one and a half for purposes of easier adjustment, but the photographer was obliged to change between the viewfinder eyepiece and the range finder.
That all changed in 1938 with the Leica IIIb, where both slipped so close together that the search for the motif and the focussing could be done simultaneously.
With this, Leica was taking over a feature from the Zeiss Contax, which had come onto the market two years earlier as the first serious competitor to the Leica.
Leica IIIb with an Elmar 50 mm f/3.5, 1938